The School for Good and Evil by Soman Chainani

Every four years two children are stolen away from Gavaldon, never to return. Most children fear being taken to the School for Good and Evil. But not Sophie…

She has dreamt all her life of being a princess and believes the school could be her chance.

Her friend Agatha has other ideas.

When the two girls are taken, things don’t quite go to Sophie’s plan.

Because sometimes, the princess and the witch don’t look like they do in fairytales.

This book…

Is BRILLIANT!

Sophie and Agatha are as different as night and day, Where Sophie is blonde and fair and does her best to look perfect, Agatha is dark of hair, lives in a cemetery and does her best to discourage everyone but they are best friends.

Good in pink. Evil in black. The School Master’s perfect pair.

Look, going by the blurb you just know what is going to happen are taken to the school, but what happens after – that is what makes this book fantastic!

The School for Good and Evil is dark, funny and entertaining. It asks the question how far will people go to achieve their dreams and forces the reader think about the nature of good and evil, prejudice, choice and predestination versus free will. It is quite a lot for a novel for young readers and what is more, it does it excellently!

Shining a light on to the characters that populate fairy tales is a brilliant idea, good may be good and evil may be evil but neither are very nice.